


A Really Weird Case

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Comment Fic 2016 [23]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU, F/M, lawyer AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-10
Updated: 2016-06-10
Packaged: 2018-07-14 04:52:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7154345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Supernatural, the winchester family, what if the demon never came to vist that night."</p><p>Law guardian Sam tells his family about his new, really weird case over Sunday dinner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Really Weird Case

Sam brought it up at Sunday dinner, because sometimes sounding off against his parents was the best thing he could do. “So, I picked up a really weird case this week.”  
  
“Weird how?” Mom asked. Dean reached for the rolls out of turn, and she rapped his knuckles with the serving spoon for the mashed potatoes without missing a beat.  
  
Lisa, his girlfriend, smirked at him when he pouted at her.  
  
Sam ignored the mini-drama at the other end of the table and handed the bowl of peas to Jess. “I was assigned to represent this girl. Her dad basically up and abandoned her at a motel in town. Her mother died years ago, and her dad’s been hauling her around the country, she’s barely been in school, and the motel was full of a pretty scary collection of weapons, occult paraphernalia, and alcohol.”  
  
Jess pinned him with a critical look. “I thought the state was neutral on the topic of religion.”  
  
“It is,” Sam said, and amended, “I am. But a lot of the paraphernalia advocated really violent behavior, and some criminal behavior, so…”  
  
“So?” Mom asked.  
  
“So, my girl is pretty mentally ill,” Sam said. “She has some serious issues with reality, and is convinced that a yellow-eyed demon is hunting her and her father. She said her dad went off to confront it, and that’s why he left her, but he will be back.”  
  
Dean guffawed. “A yellow-eyed demon?”  
  
Mom choked on her water. “Really?”  
  
“I know, right?” Sam shook his head. Such severe mental illness in one so young was sad to see, and also incredibly difficult to treat, because a teen’s brain chemistry was still evolving. “Anyway, she’s really afraid, and the staff at the detention center have caught her - get this - stealing and hoarding salt shakers.”  
  
“Salt shakers?” Dad echoed. He wagged the one he’d picked up, the one shaped like Big Ben that Mom had bought on their anniversary trip to London.  
  
Sam nodded. “She draws circles of salt around her bed at night, and the janitorial staff is freaking out. She says it’s religious, that salt protects her from evil -”  
  
“Like in Hocus Pocus,” Jess said.  
  
“I guess so. Thing is, apart from the mess, she’s really not doing anyone any harm, and she is a lot calmer when she has the circle of salt, so I’m trying to figure out if I should advocate for her to be allowed to continue the ritual under freedom of religion or not.” Sam reached for the pork roast and served himself a slice.  
  
“That’s crazy,” Dad said, but Mom said, “I think you should let her.”  
  
“Really?” Dean asked. Mom and Dad were both irreligious, though Mom was more spiritual than Dad, had told Sam and Dean as kids that angels were watching over them.  
  
“My concern is the rest of her alleged religious practices,” Sam said. “I mean, desecrating graves? Salting and burning bones of corpses? Exorcising demons and using holy water and silver against people they think are monsters, like vampires and werewolves?”  
  
“You’re worried that allowing her to continue this salt circle ritual will reinforce the rest of her negative behavior,” Jess said, and Sam nodded.  
  
“I don’t want to set a dangerous precedent, because some of her beliefs are scary. Also, it’d be an uphill battle, because I’ve never heard of any religion that advocates these practices,” Sam said.  
  
“I have,” Mom said quietly.  
  
Sam raised his eyebrows. “Really?”  
  
Mom nodded, swallowed some water. “My parents, actually, subscribed to a lot of those beliefs. The salt and holy water and silver, consecrated iron and special sigils for protection against evil. Obviously I was never much into it, but it’s not that strange. She’s not necessarily mentally ill. Don’t let her do any of the more dangerous things, but if the salt helps her sleep at night, I don’t see why not.”  
  
Sam blinked. Mom never talked about her parents much, other than to note that they hadn’t much liked Dad, and they’d died before Mom and Dad married, Grandpa Campbell of a heart attack, Grandma Campbell of grief. It had always sounded romantic and tragic, to Sam.

“Oh. Okay. Thanks,” he said. “I’ll bear that in mind.”  
  
Dean whistled. “See, this is why I’m a mechanic. No crazy kids, no legal drama. I don’t get why you keep doing what you do, Sam. You went to freakin’ Stanford. You could be rolling in the dough, and here you are, working for the state for crap pay, and all day you deal with other people’s problems and angry parents yell at you.”  
  
Dad nodded his agreement. “Sammy, if this is getting too tough -”  
  
“I’m handling it, I promise,” Sam said. He smiled at Jess. “Pass the potatoes, honey? Also, how were things for you today?”  
  
“See, I like hearing about Jess’s job,” Dean said. “I like laughing at other people’s misery.”  
  
Lisa smacked him on the arm. “Dean!”  
  
“Don’t judge him too harshly,” Jess said. “Half of the time, when an ER nurse says she needs to get someone for a consult, what she means is she needs to duck into the nearest soundproof space and laugh herself to tears because what you did was hilariously stupid.”  
  
“I feel so much better about the medical profession already,” Dad grumbled. “What about you, Lisa? How are things at the yoga studio?”  
  
“Actually,” Lisa said, “I had to send one of my students Jess’s way.” She cast Jess a look, and Jess’s eyes lit with realization.  
  
“Oh, that guy?” Jess burst out laughing. “Okay, no names, but let me tell you about the guy with the bright red yoga pants and the British accent -”  
  
Sam watched his family smile and eat and was glad they were happy and safe. He glanced at Mom and noticed, however, that her face was pale and drawn, her brow furrowed with thought. After dinner, when Sam helped her with the dishes, she pulled him aside.  
  
“Sammy,” she said, and she rarely called him that; that was Dad and Dean’s name for him. “You’re more open-minded than your father and brother. Listen to me: salt all the windows and doors on your house when you get home, okay? While the others are watching the movie, I’ll show you how it’s done here.”  
  
“Mom?” Sam asked, concerned.  
  
“Just trust me, okay?”  
  
He nodded, even though he wasn’t sure what to think. He didn’t salt every door and window at his house, just all the entrances to the bedroom. He felt silly doing it, waited till Jess was settled in the bath to do it, but he did it anyway, because something in Mom’s gaze had unsettled him.  
  
He woke in the middle of the night with the strangest sensation that he was being watched. When he opened his eyes, he saw a man standing just beyond the threshold of the bedroom door, and the man had yellow eyes.  
  
The next day, Sam told the detention center to let his client have her salt, and then he quietly asked that the case be transferred to one of the other law guardians in the office.  
  
A week later, Linda Tran and her son Kevin died in a tragic house fire.


End file.
